Luke 11, Part One

"Lord, teach us to pray" (vs. 1-13)--Prayer is such a vital part of a Christian's life, and I wonder how many of us are as dedicated and consistent with it as we should be. The Lord certainly took time out from His extremely busy schedule to converse with His Father. The disciples, feeling the inadequacy of their own prayer life, asked for instruction on the matter. Jesus repeats to them basically what is called the "Lord's Prayer"--a human term, not a Biblical one--which is first found in Matthew 6. It's simply a model prayer, outlining basic principles that should characterize our prayers: Praise to God, a desire for His will to be done, a request for the provisions of life (acknowledging our physical dependence upon Him), and a request for spiritual blessings (in realization of our need for the greatest of all blessings). Then, beginning in verse 5, Jesus tries to encourage His disciples to be more diligent in their prayer lives by telling them that God does, indeed, hear our prayers and answer them. But, be persistent: "I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs" (v. 8). Jesus is not telling us to badger God, He is simply teaching that we may not receive the answer we desire immediately; our heavenly Father knows our needs (Matt. 6:32). We should always pray that God's will be done in our lives, and live by His direction. He will only give us good things, so if the answer to our prayer is negative, that would be because our request is not in our best interest. We must have the faith and dependence to accept that. Yet if we have a certain desire, ask, for we do not know if, when, or how He will answer. Verse 13, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him," is a fortiori--if He will give us such a great blessing as the Holy Spirit, then He certainly can provide us with the simpler blessings we desire and ask for.

The divided house (vs. 14-23)--This section is largely a repetition of Matthew 12:22-30, and I reproduce here my thoughts from that section:

"The setting for this contest was Jesus healing a demon-possessed man (v. 22). Some in the attending multitudes asked “Could this be the Son of David?” (v. 23), in other words, the Messiah. The Pharisees couldn’t handle that, so they claimed that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of “Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons” (v. 23). Jesus told them that that wasn’t terribly intelligent or logical, because “every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation…If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself” (vs. 25-26). Thus, Jesus is casting out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit, which indicates that “surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (v. 28). You are either with Me or against Me, Jesus said, and from His language to the Pharisees, it’s pretty obvious He didn’t think they were with Him: “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (v. 34). A good heart brings forth good things and an evil heart brings forth evil things (v. 35). This section ends with a very frightening warning: “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Of course, in the context, Jesus is talking about the Pharisees and their blasphemy, but the principle is certainly valid and established elsewhere in the New Testament (cf. James 3)."

As frequently happens, Luke's account is briefer than Matthew's; Luke covers more events in Jesus' life, but usually not with the length of the other synoptic gospels (Matthew and Mark). Luke says nothing here regarding Jesus words on the idle tongue, and Matthew then has Jesus speaking of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, a teaching Luke omits entirely, at least in this context.

The unswept house (vs. 24-26)--Again, Matthew covers this, in almost the same words (Mt. 12:43-45). My comments:

"These verses are interesting. An unclean spirit gets cast out of a man and wanders, trying to find another home. He can’t locate one, so he returns from whence he came, hoping to reclaim his earlier abode. Sure enough, the original home is available—“empty, swept, and put in order” (v. 44). So the unclean spirit goes and gets seven buddies and they enter and dwell in the empty home. Moral? When you are cleansed of sin, replace it, fill your life, with righteousness and godliness. No unclean spirit can dwell in a heart filled with God’s spirit. But leave your life empty, don’t replace what was ejected, and sin will return with a vengeance and you’ll be worse off than before."

Luke adds--or subtracts--nothing substantial from Matthew's account.